Android OBDII interface

[Chadwick]

I have been waiting for this kinda thing for a while now. I always wanted a ScangaugeII or Dashhawk for monitoring engine stuff, primarily fuel millage, but also all the other stuff you can get from an OBDII interface.

http://scangauge.com/
http://scangauge.com/assets/graphics/headers/homehdr_2a.jpg

http://www.dashhawk.com/
http://www.dashhawk.com/images/DashHawk_05.jpg

Phones being what they are nowadays, it seemed silly to buy a separate device when with some kind of bluetooth OBDII interface you could have your phone do all the work...with the right APP.

So, in the last few months people have started to use this APP for android. It's called Torque, and it does anything and everything I wanted, all customizable, including display, logging, etc. There is a free version of course, but i hate free version apps. Under $5 = no adds.

http://torque-bhp.com/

Downloadable from the android store.

What you need of course is an android phone with bluetooth and decent processing capacity. Then you need a bluetooth OBDII interface module.

There are a few of these:

http://torque-bhp.com/software/torque-android-obd2-adapters/

The most expensive and "trusted" one is Kiwi, which i think comes with its own software. Dont know much more than that other than this is the well supported one that seems to have the best track record. But at $100 average it better be...

The other options on that page are various low buck Chinese made deals, mostly available on ebay. Going rate from a good seller seems to be $25-35. This is the one i got (ELM327) bluetooth OBD2 adapeter.

http://diydiagnostics.com/Wireless_Bluetooth_specs.htm

I have had no issues so far with it. It works great. Just no documentation so i had to search internet forums to find the PIN. The pin for the current version is 6789.


Again i primarily use it for the instant and average MPG but its also handy for any other parameter you want to monitor and log from an OBDII interface. It didn't make sense at even $70 much less $170-300 for scangaugeII or dashhawk. But for under $50 total it was worth it.

If you are an iphone (Lo)user, dont ask, I have no idea if this is available for iphone.....

[Chadwick]

It does smoke the battery like nothing i have used on my phone yet, because it constantly uses, GPS, bluetooth, and it is processing numbers with the screen on all the time at full brightness...so phone has to be plugged in in the car to use it realistically

[MnWilly]

Is there an iPhone version yet?

[Klaus]

Thanks Chad - I am going to order the same Bluetooth one you got. Now you gotta get a nook color for big screen gauges ;)

[Jomama]

Interesting timing, I just ordered this last week..

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/index.htm

[Klaus]

Thanks for the pairing code Chad. I would have been pissed if I didn't know it and it was not 0000. Everything worked well so far. What's your favorite gauge/profile Chad?

[Jomama]

I'm probably pissing off people behind me, but having the instant readout avail, turns driving into a game to try and get the best mileage...

The ultragage detected 52 different gage's it can display for my Taco...

[Klaus]

I got it set up on my Nook Color too - pretty cool having all the room to put gauges. I am sure my driving will be effected after I figure out which ones I like.

[Jomama]

Chad are you still using the Torque App? I have a friend that is interested in this stuff for his truck and motorcycle, although he's looking for the most high end functions he can get, including tweaking and re-mapping. Any suggestions?

[Chadwick]

I honestly don't use it all that often. Mainly because with my Tundra the fuel millage thing requires a custom setting that would have to be dialed in over the course of a number of tanks of fuel (logging average MPG per tank, then adjusting the correction factor) because the OBDII signal that the tundra puts out for fuel consumption is odd...

For my Speed6 i can't keep the car out of boost so looking at fuel millage is sort of a rhetorical exercise, as the information is not guiding my behavior ;)


But, that being said, it is very customizable and you can make lots of minor adjustments via correction factors. And, of course, the display is completely customizable. It is a logging device only....

It will not flash your ECU/PCM in any way, for that he would need something like this: http://www.cobbtuning.com/Accessport-s/70458.htm